Thursday, August 02, 2007

They won't steal votes again

Dear automat,

Last year, we put DNC staff on the ground all across the country to rebuild our party and stand up to the lies and failures of the Republican Party. The 50-State Strategy worked. Those organizers were key to our unprecedented victories up and down the ballot in 2006.

Our organizers are still on the ground in all 50 states, preparing for 2008 in every way possible. And starting this month, they are kicking off an unprecedented voter protection effort, of a scale never attempted by any organization.

While Democrats protect everyone's right to vote, Karl Rove and the Republican Party have a long history of threatening this right, working to make it harder for Americans to vote. We're going to stop them.

Protecting the right of every eligible American to vote is our party's top priority because we know that it's good for America and good for our democracy when everyone votes.

All Americans deserve to go to the polls confident that they won't be harassed or intimidated. That they won't wait hours for a ballot and that their vote will be counted fairly and accurately. Unfortunately, nearly forty-two years after the signing of the voting rights act, millions of American's are treated like criminals just for trying to vote.

So we're going to meet with every election official in the country, visit every polling place, and make sure that every American will have their vote counted-and we will do it now, instead of waiting to hear about big problems on the news on Election Day 2008.

We need your help. By giving $20, $50 or $100 you can help support the organizers working in your state and the vital work they are doing to make sure every vote counts.

Under the Bush Administration's politicized Justice Department we have seen an outright attack on voting rights. In their latest scheme, the Republican Administration has manipulated the mission of the Department of Justice, firing U.S. Attorneys who were unwilling to pursue phony "voter fraud" cases, and politicized the Civil Rights Division.

Over the past several years the GOP has tried everything from phone jamming schemes to vote purging to voter intimidation tactics to try and suppress the vote.

That's why this effort is so necessary. Support our organizers on the ground and help us make sure we can fix voting problems now, instead of on Election Day 2008.

I've promised to build the infrastructure and develop the strategy Democrats need to fight everywhere, and this is exactly the kind of effort it takes. Our work may not be in the headlines right now, but it's how we are going to make an impact next year and in every election after that.

We all know what happened in Florida in 2000. We all know what happened in Ohio in 2004.